(Minghui.org) Upon finding out that Ms. Zhao Ya’s son bought a ticket for her to watch a basketball game at the 19th Asian Games in late September 2023, the police from her hometown traveled over 700 miles to her son’s home and arrested her.
Ms. Zhao, a 66-year-old resident of Liquan County, Shaanxi Province, traveled with her husband to Hangzhou City, Zhejiang Province in August 2023 to visit their son. Since her son went to Hangzhou City for college in 2001 and later landed a job there after graduation, Ms. Zhao had never gotten a chance to visit him during the holidays, as she was either busy caring for her parents-in-law (who have passed away in recent years at 93 and 86, respectively) or she was unjustly detained for practicing Falun Gong. She and her husband had hoped to spend the upcoming Mid-Autumn Festival (on September 29), a traditional time of family reunions, with her son’s family – only to see their dream dashed.
On September 24, 2023, six people suddenly showed up at her son’s home. They were agents from the Chengguan Town Police Station, the Chengguan Town Government and the local village committee in Ms. Zhao’s hometown. They had driven more than 700 miles to Hangzhou after discovering that her son had purchased a ticket for her to watch a basketball game at the 19th Asian Games (held in Hangzhou from September 23 to October 8, 2023).
Since the Chinese communist regime ordered the persecution of Falun Gong in 1999, the authorities often target Falun Gong practitioners around major holidays or special events, in an attempt to prevent them from exposing the persecution to the public. Ms. Zhao’s arrest was related to this policy.
The six people said their job was to take Ms. Zhao back to Shaanxi Province. Her husband had just had eye surgery and their son begged the agents not to take his mother away. He offered to return the basketball ticket, but the agents insisted that Ms. Zhao return to Shaanxi or they’d turn her case over to the Hangzhou police for the latter to monitor her.
On September 26, three of the six Shaanxi agents, including officer Ma and two villagers, escorted Ms. Zhao and her husband onto a Shaanxi-bound flight.
At 8:00 p.m. on October 1, an officer from the Chengguan Town Police Station called Ms. Zhao’s husband and questioned him as to when he and Ms. Zhao had gone to Hangzhou and when they’d returned to Shaanxi. Ms. Zhao’s husband refused to talk to them, because the authorities had gone to Hangzhou to bring them back and the Chengguan Town police should already have known the whole situation.
Twenty-four Years of Persecution
This is not the first time that Ms. Zhao has been targeted for her faith. She was arrested in 2002 and taken to a brainwashing center. She escaped three days later and the police mobilized the military to hunt for her that night. Captain Deng Qifeng of the Liquan County Domestic Security Office, later told her that they spent more than 100,000 yuan trying to find her.
Ms. Zhao was also thrice subjected to forced labor and had her home raided multiples times over the past 24 years of persecution. She credits her firm faith in Falun Gong for helping her pull through the ordeals.
Copyright © 2023 Minghui.org. All rights reserved.
